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Tuesday, June 16, 2015

The Metro Council meets tonight June 16th. To get your own copy of the agenda and council staff analysis, follow the links indicated.

There
are a couple appointments to boards and commissions but they are to the
non-controversial agencies and it wouldn't matter anyway as there has
only been one appointee rejected in over eight years and the appointees
are routinely confirmed without serious questioning.

There are 25 resolutions on the agenda, at this time all on the consent agenda. Here are the ones of interest:

RESOLUTION NO. RS2015-1517, RESOLUTION NO. RS2015-1518, and RESOLUTION NO. RS2015-1519 are all part of pay plans for Metro employees.
Almost everyone gets a 2.5% raise, those who are in positions with
automatic increment pay raises will get the increment plus the across
the board raise. About 700 police and fire personal who missed
incremental pay raises in the past will get a bigger raise to make up
for the lost increment raise when pay was frozen.

The mayor's salary will be raised to $180,000.
Currently, the mayor is paid $136,500, so that is a 32% salary
increase. Given the candidates who are seeking the office of mayor, I
suspect a salary of $180K would be a pay cut for most of them. None of
them are running for the job for the money. David Fox is putting a
million dollars of his own money into the race and Bill Freeman is
putting in more; "what ever it takes." People don't serve as mayor for
the salary. Still, with employees getting only a 2.5% raise in most
cases, a 32% increase seems like a lot, however this will be the first
increase in the salary of the mayor since 2003. For a top executive
$180,000 does not seem excessive. Several employees of Metro earn more
than the Mayor. As a means of comparison, here are some salaries of the
mayor of some other cities: New York City, $225,000; Chicago, $216,000;
Atlanta, $147,000; Charlotte, N.C., $245,000; Indianapolis, $95,000;
Louisville, Ky., $110,000; Memphis, $171,000; San Antonio, $355,000;
St. Louis, $132,000, and Austin Texas, $82,387.

I
have no principled objection to raising the mayor's salary to $180,000
but it I were in the council and someone made a good argument to why it
should only be raised about half as much, maybe to match Atlanta's
mayor, I could be persuaded to raise it a lesser amount. RESOLUTION NO. RS2015-1520 adopts Pension Funding Policies
for the Metropolitan Government. Don't panic! It really doesn't do
anything but formalize what we are currently doing in order to conform
with a new state law.

Several resolutions approve contracts for building sidewalks
along some major corridors such as Lebanon Pike, Harding Place,
Dickerson Rd and Gallatin Rd. These projects will be 80% funded by
federal dollars and 20% local money.

There are several resolution to approve intergovernmental agreements to improve signalization on a bunch of intersections.

There are eight bills on First Reading, but I don't read them until they are on Second Reading.

There are 12 bill on Second Reading. The
staff analysis only analyzes the resolutions and no explanation is
given as to why bills are not analyzed. Here are the bills of interest:

BILL NO. BL2015-1129
would establish a Codes Offender School, much like we have a traffic
violations school or a "John's School" for those arrested for
solicitation of a prostitute. I don't yet have an opinion on this bill
and do not know the pros and cons. My first thought is, is that codes
violations is different than these other type offenses. I own a rental
unit and had a tenant who created a situation that violated codes. I
was given adequate time to correct the violation and the codes inspector
worked with me to bring my property back into compliance. Some people
who routinely run afoul of codes do so as a calculated business
decision. I am not sure they would benefit by a codes school. I would be
open to persuasion but I do not really see this as beneficial. Will it
cost the taxpayer's?

BILL NO. BL2015-1147is "An ordinance requiring the Metropolitan Planning Department to prepare
an amendment to the Metropolitan Zoning Code to require affordable and
workforce housing units as part of residential developments, and to
establish rules and regulations pertaining to the implementation of such
requirements." In other words, the Planning Commission is to draft an inclusionary zoning code. Inclusionary zoning is a form of price control,
that may say something such as that in a condo development with 100
units, 10% of them must be sold so they can be affordable to a person
making 80% of the area medium income. So while 90 of the units may sell
from $500,000 to $1,000,000 for the penthouse with the view, ten of
the units would have to sale for about $180,000. (The math works like
this: 80% of Area median income is $53,500 for a family of four, x 31%=
$16,585 for housing /12 months = $1,382 monthly house payment. Assume
taxes and HOA fees and MIP = $482 a month = $900 for principal and
interest and the assume interest rate is 4.5%, that buys a $180,000
house.) Of course if the house must be affordable for a family of two
or a family earning only 60% or the area median income then the set
aside units would have to be sold at an even lower price.e

So,
what happens with this form of price control? The market rate unit
must have their price increased to subsidize the below market rate
units. The result may be that fewer total units get build and total
housing cost increases for everyone. Some inclusionary zoning codes
applies to only rental and some to rental and units for sale. Some
inclusionary zoning codes requires the unit to remain affordable for
thirty years. In the case of the situation described above, if after a
few years, the person who purchased one of the set aside units decides
to sale and prices in the development he purchased had significantly
increased in value, he would still have to price his home so it was
affordable for a person making 80% of the area median income and would
not benefit from an increase in value. He could only sale is house for
more than he paid for it if the area median income had increased.

In
a case of a condo as described above, much of what one is buying is the
amenities, such as flowers in the lobby, a doorman and a roof top
tennis court and a swimming pool. Questions arise, if the set aside
units get all of the condo amenities? Some controversy has arisen
because in some developments, the residents of the set aside units were
required to use a different entrance than the market rate residents.

For more on the topic of inclusionary zoning, follow this link.
In some cities with inclusionary zoning, it has resulted in very few
additional units. In some places builders can choose to pay a fee into
an affordable housing fund instead. Whether being required to build the
affordable units or pay the penalty for not building the units, it
increases the cost of housing. The Council should defeat this bill. Bills on Third Reading:

BILL NO. BL2015-1122
is the budget. There will be a substitute that gives more money to the
Election Commission allowing the Election Commission to continue early
voting. There may be a few other modest changes, but nothing major. The
dollar amount of the budget will not change.

There are three Memorializing Resolutions on the agenda. These two are of interest:RESOLUTION NO. RS2015-1498 by
Charlie Tygard request the Metropolitan Civil Service Commission to
consider and recommend an amendment to the General Pay Plan to
partially base the compensation of Members of the Metropolitan Council
upon Council and committee meeting attendance.

Recently, Channel 5
did an investigative piece and revealed that some Council members
almost never attend committee meetings. This is just not right! As
Tygerd said, "It's not fair for certain council members to do all of
the homework and others to get the same rate of pay and do nothing of
the work.”

With a large council, the council must have a strong
committee system. It is in committee where the real work of the
Council is done. It is in committee where the council can ask hard
questions and get answers. There is no way a councilmember can know
all there is to know about the bills on the agenda. Some of the
Councilmen said they had regular jobs and could not take off work to
attend committee meetings. In my view, if a councilmember does not have
flexibility in his job to attend to his council duties, he should not
run for council. If he cannot attend Council committee meetings he
should resign from the council. The worst offenders were Emily
Evans, who missed 83 committee meetings since 2013, Robert Duvall, who's
missed 93 committee meetings in that time period, and Sean McGuire,
who's missed 132 committee meetings since 2013! Among the top twelve members with the worst attendance records was Council member-at-large and Mayoral candidate Megan Barry. This resolution was on the agenda the last two meetings and was deferred both times.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2015-1515 by Charlie Tygard requesting the Davidson County Delegation to the Tennessee General Assembly to introduce and support the necessary
legislation to require full-time Davidson County elected officials to
submit an annual report to the Comptroller detailing the dates they
worked. The Tennessean recently did some investigative reporting,
and got the records of the access card swipes of various elected
officials. These elected officials carry a unique card that records
every time they enter a certain office or building and some of them have
very poor records of showing up for work. This has also been on the agenda the last two meetings and deferred.

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As the author of A Disgruntled Republican I often post items which I think may be of interest to the conservative, Republican, libertarian or the greater community. Posting of a press release or an announcement of an event does not necessarily indicate an endorsement. Rod